On October 24, 2015, Sue was with her daughter Jessica, who was 14 years old at the time, and her friend Elise. Sue and Elise were skydiving buddies, and they were doing what they often did on a beautiful Saturday morning – they were going to go jump out of a plane. Since she was 14, Jessica wasn’t yet old enough to jump – but she just liked being with her mom and hanging out at the drop zone. The weather was beautiful, and everything was going fine, until Sue got to about 5000 feet. She...

One of the things I really try hard to avoid is any flying, stinging insect. When I was a little kid, we lived in a pretty rural area in central Ohio. We had a big yard so my brothers and I were outside playing all summer. And of course there were bees. I was old enough to know not to mess with them, but my next youngest brother, Steve, hadn’t really learned that yet. So sometimes I would show him that nice little flying thing – a regular honey bee – and encourage him to go and catch it in...

I’m Scott, the host of What Was That Like. And this is a bonus episode. Normally, on this podcast you would hear someone talking about the time they witnessed a murder, or when they escaped a cult, or when they were swimming and they lost their leg to a shark attack. Those are all actual past episodes, and there are currently over 150 of them to binge. But we’re doing something a little different in this episode. You’ve heard me talk about the private Facebook group. That’s where we discuss...

Anthony is a husband and a father. He lives in Canada. His kidneys were failing, and he was in desperate need of a donor. He was even on the local news with his wife and daughter, hoping to find someone who was a match, and willing to give up a kidney. Almost anyone can donate a kidney, but to donate to a specific recipient, you have to be tested to find out if you’re a match – to see if your kidney is likely to work when it’s in the other person’s body. My guest today is Stacy. She also...

“48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty takes you inside true-crime investigations like no one else, in her podcast “My Life of Crime”. In the new season, Erin delves into the labyrinth of crime within families and the secrets that kept them together or tore them apart. Here’s a preview of the “My Life of Crime” season premiere, “Twisted Twins: Who Killed Heather DeWild?” Erin examines the case of 30-year-old Heather DeWild, who vanished after visiting her soon-to-be ex-husband Daniel...

October 4, 2016. For Jennifer and her husband Chris, and their 4 children, it was just a regular Tuesday. Up until around 8 pm that evening. Jen was driving home and she had their two young daughters in the car. Jen stopped at a stop sign, and then proceeded into the intersection without seeing the motorcycle that was approaching on her left. The motorcycle hit her car, and with that collision, the lives of two families were forever changed. David, the driver of the motorcycle, was taken to...

Have you ever heard of Rohypnol? In the US, Rohypnol is classified as a Schedule IV controlled substance. It functions as a depressant to the central nervous system. It’s not manufactured or approved for sale in the US, but it is shipped here from other countries and used illegally. It’s similar to Valium, but ten times more powerful. A common name for it on the street is the “forget-me drug”. A more generic term is “roofie” and it’s often referred to as the “date rape drug”. In many cases,...

This is a special episode. Most of the time here on What Was That Like, I talk to a regular person who has been through some type of extremely unusual situation. If you’ve just discovered this podcast, you can just scroll through the episode titles and see that we’ve heard a lot of REALLY big and unusual stories – and all of them are told first-hand, by the person who went through it. But a lot of times a listener will contact me and say, “Scott – I’ve just binged ALL of your past episodes...

Tristan Redman is a journalist who doesn’t believe in ghosts. But weird things happened in his teenage bedroom – weirder than normal. When, years later, he discovers subsequent occupants of his family home say they have been visited by the ghost of a faceless woman, he’s curious. It just so happens that the house Tristan grew up in is right next door to the house where his wife’s great grandmother, Naomi Dancy, was murdered – killed by two gunshots to the face. Could there be a...

Most of the time, childbirth happens in a hospital. But not always. Consider the pregnant woman in Payson, Utah, who went in to Walmart early on a Sunday morning just to pick up a few things. This was her third pregnancy, so she was familiar with what to expect. But by the time she finished shopping and was at the register, she was on her knees and holding her stomach in serious distress. The baby was not going to wait. The manager and other employees were trying to help her, to get her to a...

On the night of October 1, 2017, 64 year old Stephen Paddock opened fire from his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas. He was able to fire over 1100 rounds in just 10 minutes time, from 10:05 pm to 10:15 pm. His target was the crowd of 22,000 people in the open field below his room. These people were attending the final night of the 3-day Route 91 Harvest Music festival. Country singer Jason Aldean was performing when the shooting began. In the end, 851 people were...

If you’re a parent, you know – there is nothing more precious to you than your child. You would do anything for them, to keep them healthy, and happy, and safe. But sometimes, even the best parents with the best of intentions can have a brief lack of focus, and the results can be devastating. The subject we’re talking about today is hot car deaths. Outside of crashes, heatstroke is the leading cause of death in vehicles for children 14 and under. It happened 36 times in 2022, and so far in...

Have you ever been in a situation and had the thought, “I actually might die here today”? We recently observed the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and I learned about a woman named Linda Gronlund, from New York. She was an attorney, an accomplished sailor and scuba diver, a certified EMT, and she held a brown belt in karate. On September 11, 2001, Linda was on United flight 93. The plane had been hijacked, and the passengers knew that two other planes had already been flown into...

Dr. Robert Hadden was a trusted OB-GYN at Columbia University. Friendly, caring, unassuming... and behind the closed door of exam rooms, one of the most prolific sexual predators in New York City. During his 25-year career, he assaulted hundreds, perhaps thousands, of patients, under the guise of medical exams. Those who tried to warn Columbia were ignored or not believed. When it appeared that no one — not Hadden, not Columbia — would be held to account, it was the survivors who undertook a...

September 11, 2001 was a tragic day in America. The terrorist attacks caused the deaths of 2,996 people in New York, the Pentagon, and near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Thousands more were injured. And many people since then have died from illnesses caused by exposure to toxic materials at the World Trade Center crash site. Here on the podcast, each year in September we dedicate an episode to hearing stories from people who were there and witnessed the tragedy. In this episode, you’ll hear from...

I live about 20 minutes from world-famous Clearwater Beach. I do bike around that area sometimes but that’s about the only time I go there, because I’m not much of a beach person. But people come from all over the world to sit in that sand, because that’s one of the things Clearwater is known for. But there’s something else that makes this city famous. Clearwater, Florida is also the worldwide spiritual headquarters of the Church of Scientology. Back in 1975, there was a Scientology-founded...

This weekend edition of What Was That Like highlights a top true crime podcast called LISK: Long Island Serial Killer. Since 2017, the show has covered a decade-long cold case set in Long Island. The podcast recently went viral after a suspect was arrested in connection to the case. If you enjoyed this episode, listen to LISK: Long Island Serial Killer wherever you listen to podcasts or click here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There’s a phrase I find interesting. It’s often used to describe a person who seems to have an unusual power in different ways. The phrase I’m thinking of is “force of nature”. When I hear “that man, or that woman, is a force of nature”, it makes me think of someone who comes in like a whirlwind, with a clear objective, and nothing is going to stand in their way. And that description makes sense, because that’s how nature is sometimes. Here in Florida, we’re about to go into that magical time...

There are a lot of things we have that are amazing, but we take them for granted. Have you ever seen those videos online where the person being recorded is color blind? And their family gets them those specially-made sunglasses that actually allow a person to see colors, even though they have never been able to before. Of course, everyone in the family wants to see their reaction the first time they put on those glasses. So they all go outside, and there are usually some brightly colored...

You know when people are asked about what their biggest fear is, a lot of the answers are what you’d expect – fear of heights, fear of spiders, and so forth. Humans are afraid of a lot of things. But when people are asked what their single BIGGEST fear is – the big one that usually comes out as number one is fear of public speaking. For a lot of people it even ranks higher than their fear of death. When Jerry Seinfeld heard about that, he correctly observed that that means if that person is...

Hey, this is Scott, and you’re listening to What Was That Like. But this is not a regular episode of What Was That Like. I’ve got a really cool BONUS episode for you today. What you’re about to hear is the first episode in a new podcast series called Dark Valley. This series is investigation-oriented, and it’s about as True-Crime as you can get. You’re gonna learn about America’s “unknown serial killer” – or by the name given to him by law enforcement and the media: The Connecticut River...

Do you ever think about the children in your state who are currently in foster care? Here in Florida, there are about 19,000 children living in foster care. That’s a lot of kids. And in that group, there are about 500 children who have no identified families. Can you imagine how scary and lonely that must be, to be a child with no family at all, and only the government to try to take care of you and keep you safe? There are a lot of different situations that can lead to that. But whatever...

Hey, this is Scott. This is just a short episode in between the regular episodes – I guess you could call it an In-Between-isode. What I have for you today is an announcement about the podcast, followed by a Listener Story – and the Listener Story is from someone you’ve heard from before. But first, I want to give you an update on a new feature that’s now available in the What Was That Like podcast. This is a new subscription program that allows you to get rid of the ads that get inserted...

Here on the podcast, I talk to people who have been through extremely unusual situations. Like witnessing a murder, or being attacked by a monkey, or winning the showcase on The Price Is Right. We get to hear those stories first hand, from the person who experienced it. In this bonus episode, I want to introduce you to another podcast that has a very similar format, which means you’re gonna want to subscribe. This podcast is called The Only One in the Room, and the host is Laura Cathcart...

(Content warning – this episode includes discussion of sex trafficking, and graphic depiction of sexual attack. If you’re in the car with the kids, you might want to save this one for later.) The situation that Jennifer found herself in is one that no one ever expects. She was away from home, and she didn’t really know anyone. On top of that, she was an American in Turkey and she didn’t speak much of the language. And her attacker was strong, and determined. But what came to her during this...